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Asylum Support

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what representations he has received about the Asylum Support (Amendment) (No.2) Regulations. [111728]

Beverley Hughes: I refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave him on 6 May 2003, Official Report, column 595W.

Child Protection

Mr. Wray: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what structures are in place for, and what plans he has to improve, the exchange of information on child sex offenders between countries. [110781]

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Hilary Benn: Since June 2001 sex offenders subject to the notification requirements of the Sex Offenders Act 1997 have been required to notify the police if they intend to travel abroad for eight days or more. The police can, and do, pass this information to other jurisdictions where they believe the offender may commit offences overseas.

The meeting of G8 Ministers of Justice and Home Affairs on 5 May this year, discussed the implementation of the strategy against the sexual exploitation of children on the internet. The strategy includes objectives on collecting information, locating suspects and international co-operation, including the creation of an international image database that can be used to identify victims and persons suspected of paedophile acts. This is a major initiative which will assist police forces to combat the sexual exploitation of children on the internet.

We are continuing to explore with our European partners how we might share information on sex offenders who travel within the European Union.

Information relating to Scotland is a matter for Ministers in the Scottish Parliament. Information relating to Northern Ireland is a matter for my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.

Child Witness Officer

Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether there is a child witness officer available at every court; and if he will make a statement. [112107]

Yvette Cooper: I have been asked to reply.

Each Crown court centre has a Child Liaison Officer, although in some courts the responsibilities will have been taken on by the new Witness Liaison Officers who were appointed in 2002. The Witness Service fulfils this role in the Magistrates' courts.

Correspondence

Mr. Kaufman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he intends to reply to the letter to him dated 11 March 2003 from the right hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton with regard to Mrs. Natalia Belhka. [110609]

Mr. Blunkett: I wrote to my right hon. Friend on 8 May 2003.

Mr. Kaufman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he intends to reply to the letter to him dated 10 February 2003 from the right hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton with regard to Mr. Sheik Mohammad Kamal Uddin. [110610]

Mr. Blunkett: I wrote to my right hon. Friend on 8 May 2003.

Mr. Kaufman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he intends to reply to the letter to him dated 11 March 2003 from the right hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton with regard to Mrs. H. Abdul Wahed. [110611]

Mr. Blunkett: I wrote to my right hon. Friend on 8 May 2003.

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Counselling Services

Mr. Paul Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what arrangements are made in his Department to allow staff to access counselling services. [111933]

Hilary Benn: The Home Office Health and Welfare Service provides independent, confidential and non-judgmental advice, information and counselling to all staff in the core Home Office, the Forensic Science Service and the UK Passport Service. In cases where further assistance is required staff can be referred to accredited specialist counsellors. The Prison Service Staff Care and Welfare provides a similar service to all staff in the Prison Service.

Employees may talk to their welfare officer about any concerns they may have, whether they are inside or outside the workplace. The service helps staff to deal with problems which may affect their performance or attendance and helps them to continue to remain effective at work.

Criminal Justice Bill

Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to his answer of 28 February 2003, Official Report, column 772W, on the Criminal Justice Bill, what research he used to reach his estimate of 1,000 additional prisoners. [109584]

Hilary Benn: A model was developed by the Home Office Research Development and Statistics Directorate as part of the review of sentencing policy conducted by John Halliday ("Making Punishments Work", published in July 2001). This model was then adapted for use in assessing the impact of the Criminal Justice Bill, focussing on those aspects of the review's proposals that have been taken forward in the Bill, as well as additional proposals that have been developed following the publication of the review. The model considers the cost-benefits of the proposals, as well as the impacts on prison and probation workload. It uses published prison and probation statistics, and research evidence on the effectiveness of programmes in reducing re-offending. It is based on sentencing behaviour in 2000. The assumptions within the model were agreed with the relevant stakeholders such as the Prison Service, Probation Service and others. The projected net effect of implementation of the sentencing provisions in the Bill, of a small increase of about 1,000 in the prison population by 2009, was arrived at using the model. The impact is estimated to be about 500 once all the changes have been implemented and sufficient time has passed for their full effects to be seen.

Drug-related Crime

Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate he has made of the cost of crimes committed as a result of drug addictions in the UK in each of the last five years. [111573]

Mr. Bob Ainsworth [holding answer 8 May 2003]: Recorded crime figures do not record whether an offence has been committed as a consequence of an offender's drug habits. Therefore it is not possible to make a direct assessment of the cost of crimes committed as a result of drug addiction.

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However, a recent study published by the Home Office provides estimates of the total economic costs of Class A drug use in 2000 in the range of £2.9 and £5.3 billion. These costs include those to the health service, courts, prisons and other parts of the criminal justice system. When social costs, such as the costs to the victims of drug-related crime, are added, the total rises to between £10.1 and £17.4 billion, with problematic drug users responsible for 99 per cent. of these costs.

Extradition (USA)

Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department for what reason the draft agreements between the European Union and the United States on extradition and mutual legal assistance have been classified as confidential; and if he will withdraw his request for the parliamentary scrutiny committees to consider the documents in camera. [112155]

Mr. Bob Ainsworth: The decision to classify the draft EU-US judicial co- operation Agreements was taken by the General Secretariat of the Council, in line with the criteria set down in the Council's security regulations of 19 March 2001. It is normal practice for negotiations on third country agreements to be held in restricted session and for the accompanying documents to be classified. This is necessary in order to protect the negotiating positions of the parties.

The Agreements were de-classified on 2 May and have now been deposited with the Scrutiny Committees. An accompanying Explanatory Memorandum is being prepared in the normal way. The decision to de-classify the text was not one which could be taken by the UK unilaterally but rather, in accordance with the Council's security regulations, required the agreement of all member states and the US.

Forged Passports

Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate he has made of the number of forged passports in circulation in the UK. [112137]

Beverley Hughes: It is difficult to quantify the number of false passports circulating within the United Kingdom, given the nature of the problem.

Forgery detection which is carried out by the Immigration and Nationality Directorate's National Forgery Section (NFS). As part of a comprehensive brief addressing passport forgery, NFS conducts forgery detection training for all Immigration Service staff, ranging from basic training for new entrants, through intermediate to expert level. As a direct result of this training, a provisional total of 9,665 fraudulent documents were detected at UK ports of entry in 2002 (an increase of 46 per cent. over the 2001 figure). NFS also delivers training to the police, Customs and Excise, the DVLA and the Department for Work and Pensions. This in turn leads to substantial numbers of falsified documents being discovered within the United Kingdom and inhibits the adoption of false identities.

Since October 2001, NFS has had a permanent presence at the main offices of the Immigration and Nationality Directorate (IND) in Croydon, following a pilot exercise which revealed large numbers of fraudulent

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documents being submitted in support of applications for leave to remain. As well as examining suspect documents on behalf of their colleagues in Croydon, NFS has also established a comprehensive training programme for caseworkers, resulting in the discovery of many more forged documents. Provisional figures for 2002 indicate that a total of 461 fraudulent documents was detected there, an increase of 28 per cent. over the figure for 2001.

Work is now under way to ensure that the best use is made of biometric technology in travel documents, to combat identity fraud and facilitate the operation of border controls. Managers from NFS represent the United Kingdom at relevant international working groups, with the aim of securing an agreement on global interoperability of the appropriate technology.

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